1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a grinding machine for grinding a workpiece, in particular cams, and to a method for grinding a workpiece, in particular cams, on a holder.
2. Description of Related Art
Grinding machines of this type are known, for example, from the brochure “CamGrind—Produktionslösungen für das Schleifen von Nockenwellen” [CamGrind—Production Solutions for the Grinding of Camshafts] from Studer Schaudt GmbH, Stuttgart, dated October 2006. In this publication, for example, the models “CamGrind S” and “CamGrind L” have grinding devices which consist of a large grinding wheel and of a small grinding wheel and are designed in particular for grinding camshafts. With the large grinding wheel, first of all the cams are pre-ground and the bearing seats machined with high productive capacity while the small grinding wheel serves to finish grind the cam shapes or also to grind the bearing seats. For the machining of the camshaft, said camshaft is arranged on a workholding device which has a work headstock on one side, said work headstock setting the camshaft in the desired rotation about the longitudinal axis thereof, and a tailstock on the other side, said tailstock ensuring that the camshaft is always oriented and centered during the machining. Compared with said, as a rule stationary, components of the workholding device, the grinding wheels or the corresponding grinding spindles are movable relative to the camshaft within the x-z plane.
Where the axes or directions x and z are referred to above or below, this always means the two axes which define the plane which forms the machine bed. In this case, the z-axis extends parallel to the longitudinal extent of the workpiece, here, for example, the camshaft, and the x-axis extends as an axis perpendicular thereto, which therefore corresponds to a movement of a tool towards or away from the corresponding workpiece from the side. Furthermore, the direction perpendicular to the x- and z-axes is designated as the y-axis or y-direction. It consequently runs perpendicularly to the machine bed.
The grinding of the cams directly on the shaft is carried out for the purpose of accuracy so that the cams are formed exactly with respect to the shaft. Compared with said established method, however, the grinding of individual cams is also being increasingly used, since manufacturers of camshafts have in the meantime been successful in being able to join the individual cams to a shaft in a very exact manner. In this case, the exact grinding of the individual cams takes place individually or as groups of a plurality of cams which are usually machined on a work fixture, as a rule a mounting arbor, in a grinding machine.
In the grinding and machining operations with the known grinding machines mentioned at the beginning, burr always accumulates along edges of the ground workpiece, for example, the cams. Said burr is basically undesirable for further use of the ground workpieces, and therefore said burr is removed in separate installations, for example high-pressure deburring installations or brushing stations. For this purpose, the ground device is removed from the grinding machine and inserted into said separate installations such that the workpieces can be further machined there. This therefore has the consequence of an additional machining step with additional machining time and repeated clamping of the workpiece, and, furthermore, has the disadvantage that a separate, further device/machine has to be purchased and provided for production purpose. In addition to the space requirement associated therewith, this also has a negative effect on the economic aspects of the production, since, in addition to additional maintenance and service costs, separate installations of this type also have relatively high capital costs.